PIZZA, PASTA, PLENTY OF PIZAZZ : FAB FOOD, SNAPPY SCENE MAKE FIORE'S A REAL FIND.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

In an oft-changing restaurant space that has been Southwestern, a Maryland seafood house, a Mexican eatery with a French accent, and most recently a pizzeria called Michael J's, Fiore's 20th Century Cafe & Pizzeria is a brave, new venture.

Sharp, clean, with nifty, modern black canvas and chrome chairs, a striped floor, black formica-topped tables and colorful framed movie posters (``The Thin Man,'' ``Fantasia,'' ``It Happened One Night,'' ``Double Indemnity''), it has one major characteristic in its favor.

It cooks good food.

From a particularly hearty, warming, well-executed minestrone soup ($2.50 a cup, $3.50 a bowl) crammed with fresh-tasting vegetables, to a garlicky white-on-white, Mott Street-style, New York-type pizza ($11.95 or $13.95) made with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, without sauce and with a light sprinkling of spinach, Fiore's kitchen comes through time and time again.

Every table has a bottle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil on it for those who would like to splosh some on a plate and mix it up to use as a dip for the excellent, crusty, hot squares of cheesy, oniony, house focaccia presented soon after you're seated.

Actually, the waiter often does this for you - the sploshing that is - when he delivers the basket of bread.

And if you're interested in wine with your meal, you'll no doubt be surprised to find some bottles as low as $12 and one - Beringer's white zinfandel - ticketed at $10.

At these prices, the bargain is to buy by the bottle ($15 and under) rather than by the glass (mostly $4 or $5.50).

Prices for food are also relatively low with nearly all pastas and chicken entrees under $10.

Fiore's keeps its menu simple. There are pizzas, pastas, salads, sandwiches, four chicken entrees and desserts.

Most intriguing of the starter offerings is mango ravioli ($4.95), an uptown presentation of a quartet of mango-flavored square dough wrappings filled with a tasty ricotta and chicken mixture. The raviolis are perched around a small mesclun salad with a balsamic vinegar dressing and a chopped fresh tomato garnish. Very attractive and quite enjoyable.

Both a house and Caesar salad, each thoughtfully available in half portions ($3.50 and $3.75 respectively), provide refreshing beginning options if either soup or pizza is passed up. The big surprise though, is the Tuscan chicken main course ($9.50), a delightful preparation of pan-sauteed chicken breast with a peppery saucing made with olive oil, chardonnay wine, garlic and rosemary.

Accompaniments are a medley of properly cooked vegetables (zucchini, carrot, yellow squash) and a smooth rendition of garlic mashed potatoes.

The skillful chef here loves to use garlic and/or marsala wine.

He makes a topnotch chicken marsala ($9.50) with mushrooms and a fair-sized, moist chicken breast plus the same vegetables and mashed potatoes as the Tuscan-style dish.

The marsala's distinctive sweet flavor shines through, unlike some purported veal and chicken marsala dishes tasted at other restaurants lately where the amount of marsala used is so restrained it's indistinguishable.

But the chef is smart enough to temper his use of the sweet fortified marsala wine in a bolognese sauce that allows the natural meaty flavors to work, although there's also a touch of garlic in this dish, too.

The bolognese comes with penne ($7.25) or linguine and meatballs ($7.95), the latter bringing forth a couple of nicely fashioned, ground meat spheres, thankfully not puffed up with fillers.

Marsala also shows up with fettuccine plates tossed with chicken or shrimp and a mixed vegetable and penne creation.

Most of the pastas here list linguine or penne as the noodle of choice. Of the penne ones, perhaps the best is the slant-cut pasta tossed with a spicy balsamic marinara mixture ($7.75).

I like a kitchen that comes through with a good, strong jolt of chili pepper when its menu suggests it will. Fiore does exactly this and deserves applause for it.

You don't expect plates to be decorated here, but they often are, giving trendy looks in unexpected places.

That's one more reason why Fiore's should succeed where others haven't.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Fiore's 20th Century Cafe & Pizzeria.

Where: 15025 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.

When: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Recommended items: Mango ravioli, minestrone, house salad, Mott Street white pizza pie, penne with spiced balsamic marinara, linguine with meatballs and marsala bolognese, Tuscan chicken, chicken marsala.

How much: Starters and sandwiches from $2.50 to $7.50, pizzas and calzones from $6 to $18, pastas and entrees from $6.50 to $10.50, desserts $2.50 and $4. Beer and wine. All major credit cards.

Wine list: Limited, cautious selection at very moderate prices with only a couple of wines above $20. The low-priced ones are not always great, but are passable wines as low as $12 a bottle (i.e. Gabbiano chianti classico, Bonverre merlot, Ivan Tamas chardonnay). Recommended: an off-year '92 Monsanto chianti classico riserva for $19. Corkage fee is $4.

Reservations: Not taken. First come, first served.

Our rating: Three and One Half Stars for food; Three Stars for service; Three Stars for wine.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Chris Wessling, left, presents lemon pepper shrimp, Fernando Beltran holds barbecue chicken pizza, and Matt Cassidy offers baby greens salad, all from the menu at Fiore's 20th Century Cafe & Pizzeria. Tuscan chicken is in foreground.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News